Liverpool's stuttering season has suffered another damaging blow after Jamie Carragher dislocated his left shoulder in the defeat to Tottenham Hotspur and will now join Steven Gerrard among the ranks of walking wounded at Anfield.

Carragher fell awkwardly following an aerial challenge with Peter Crouch five minutes from time with his replacement, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, beaten by the Spurs forward to flick Aaron Lennon through for the winning goal in stoppage time. Roy Hodgson bemoaned the loss of his "talismanic" defender, who could be absent for up to six weeks.

Carragher will undergo a scan tomorrow with Liverpool's options at centre-half relatively thin with Daniel Agger out with a calf complaint. "I don't know how long Jamie will be out for, but it's a serious injury," Hodgson said. "We'll miss his leadership skills and we've got Agger still injured and we're not overly blessed with centre-halves. The injury to Steven Gerrard came at the wrong time, and now Jamie – they're two big losses. But Steven is making big strides and we'll just have to wait and see on Jamie."

Hodgson preferred not to pinpoint when Gerrard will be able to return – the captain damaged a hamstring playing for England against France earlier this month – though Liverpool are hopeful he might be able to play some part in the visit of Aston Villa on 6 December. They will start that match back in mid-table when this performance arguably deserved better than a fifth away defeat of the season. "It was cruel to come away with nothing having played well, lost our talismanic centre-half, and then paid the price for not dealing with a routine long ball," Hodgson said. "I'm finding it hard to come to terms that we go away with nothing."

Tottenham, now restored to fifth place after a third impressive victory in a week, emerged with their own injury problems after Rafael van der Vaart's return from an ankle complaint lasted nine minutes before he tore a hamstring. Spurs are braced to be without their £8m signing from Real Madrid for up to a month.

"Rafael's torn a hamstring – well, he felt it tear– so that doesn't look too good," Harry Redknapp said. "It's so disappointing because he keeps picking up little injuries. They're probably born of missing pre-season having been away at the World Cup, and not having played too many games. When your fitness is a bit low, it's hard to get up to speed and he keeps getting little tears and nicks.

" Then there's Younes [Kaboul], who felt he might have torn a muscle in his hip. He felt it go. At least Michael Dawson's on his way back – he's going to play on Tuesday [in a behind closed doors fixture], which is important because we've only got two central defenders now."

Victory was secured despite falling behind to Martin Skrtel's opener and with Jermain Defoe fluffing a penalty just before the hour mark following David Ngog's handball. The England forward has now missed eight of his last 13 penalties – Tottenham have spurned four spot kicks this season alone – though Spurs revived, as they had done at Arsenal the previous weekend, to rally late on.

Lennon's goal was his first since he scored the fifth in a 9-1 victory over Wigan Athletic a little over a year ago to leave Spurs still within touching distance of the title race. "We just have that belief that we can come from behind at the moment," Redknapp said. "I did wonder whether it was going to be our day or not when we missed the penalty, but it was another great comeback in the end.

"As for the title, I've never said we'd win it but it's not impossible. It's wide open. How can I sit here and say we can't win it when we've just beaten Liverpool and won at Arsenal? I've said to the players: 'Listen, there's no reason why we can't have a go.' I said last year we should target the top four and we secured that in the end. I'm not going to say we'll win the championship, but we've got a chance. Arsenal and Manchester City have a chance, too. Chelsea and United are favourites, but nothing's impossible."